heatherb1958

Their names will be noted on file for any future cruises booked with P&O for sure. Cruiselines have records like airlines do for troublesome passengers . We know people who were barred from RCI

Gareth himself put a follow up post on his social media thanking the management onboard who dealt with the situation , gave the 3 women a warning ...

Welcome home ... amd thank you for the detailed reports. We are back on Ventura to the Med on 5th December, 12 nights of some winter sun we hope . We like rocky seas so long as the cabin is quiet , might add WD40 to my packing list with some foam shoe insoles 😆 .

We were on Arcadia in July for the British isles cruise , our balcony cabin was aft on deck 4. I didn't see any issues with leaks or smell bad smells , believe me if there were any my nose would detect them, it is very sensitive to obnoxious smells 😆. What concerns me about this post is when the OP says they all had to disembark , am I reading that right ? A zero count of passengers for a deep clean ?? That is shocking if so. The clientele on our cruise were average age 75 +.... lots with walking difficulties . We have done over 150 cruises with several lines over 23 years , I am only saying that so readers know we are experienced cruisers not for bragging purposes. In all those years we have only ever been on one ship , Adventure of the seas , that had an issue with Noro. All crew served guests , there was no handling of anything in the buffet. Even the sachets of salt and pepper were handed to you, the singers and dancers were serving too . No salt and pepper pots on tables in MDR.. At the end of breakfast the buffet was closed and men in haz suits would fog the whole place down. At no point were all guests asked to leave the ship in a port so cleaning could be done... what they had done on turnaround day was delay embarkation in Southampton to fog every cabin , I remember walking up the gangway and seeing the mattresses in the OV cabins on their sides ... Night and day corridor rails were washed down by the crew. I must say we never got sick or saw anyone being ill. I feel for the guests onboard now..

Let's just say I have a feeling in my water 😂

The cruise is truly a one off event in Royal's history .

We have been to Norway several times since 2012 with Royal and Princess, it is my favourite itinerary after Alaska . I always say if you can find an itinerary that includes both Flam and Geiranger that is the one to go for. My SIL' s niece is celebrating a 10th wedding anniversary in September 2024 and their bucket list trip is a cruise to the Fjiords so tonight I have been checking for them what's available for next year. Do you have to cruise out of Southampton? Royal will only have , at the time , an 18 year old ship with no indoor covered Solarium .... there are much nicer ships with indoor facilities if the weather is inclement . Next year MSC Euribia is sailing from Copenhagen and has an itinerary that includes both Flam and Geiranger .... I am looking at September 24 but I am sure there will be opportunities in 2025 . Independence is an old ship now, we have had some amazing cruises on her to the Fjiords in 2019 but as you know the rules are changing ...

We cruised with Celebrity on Silhouette in June this year after a hiatus of more than 10 years , it was our 5th cruise with them but we are Elite due to our Royal C&A level. We opted to book their package which included drinks , WiFi and gratuities , I believe since that cruise the gratuities part has been removed but don't quote me. We could have saved ourselves a ton of money as complimentary UNLIMITED drinks are served 5pm til 7pm I think it was , there were cocktail parties with complimentary drinks , we had some included wifi plus some other Elite perks which I forget . For a classier more upmarket experience I think the OP is working it right . Next time , and there will be a next time with Celebrity, we will just go standard fare and see how we get on with the Elite perks for a comparison with Royal but I wouldn't dismiss their Elite perks outright ..

Good decision. We stay at the Premier Inn the night before our Horwich pick up... coach pulls into hotel car park for us . Much more relaxing than getting up at the crack of dawn and negotiating rush hour traffic, we can leave our car at the hotel for a donation of £20 to their charity, you can still do this even if not staying over night .

Matalan were selling off folding drawer organisers which took shirts in 2 side by side compartments , they were about 4 ins deep. That might have worked 🤔 I should have bought one 😂.

We love cruising at Christmas and New year, lost count how many we have done now , certainly takes the stress away of who is visiting who for Christmas dinner etc. You get to escape for a short while from the constant TV adverts and supermarket stresses of shopping and be spoiled for a couple of weeks . What I don't understand is the folks who book a December cruise then moan about the activities they have " to look forward too " . Surely they would be better off on a desert island without electric 😆 🤣

Where is your coach transfer from and how long is the cruise ? We have used both Intercruises and Eavesway from Bolton though the Intercruises pick up is more Horwich. On our 24 night Princess cruise end of September a lot of folks took advantage of the max 3 medium case rule and the coach luggage hold was already full at Bolton with more pick ups along the way. I said to the driver didn't you know this was a 3 weeks + cruise ???? . Nope he didn’t. We only had one big suitcase each, weighed under 23kgs , and one hand luggage. When we got to Southampton both my hand luggage cases were missing !!!! 😢. Unbeknown to me when the coaches were together at one of the pick ups down the line luggage had been shifted between the 2 buses to make room for the newcomers.... Luckily the other bus was behind ours so our driver went round again at the terminal and between us we found my cases . In the past any unlabelled hand luggage was left at the side of the bus for collection . I didn't have cabin labels on my hand luggage just personal ID, never had an issue before . Tip: make sure you let the driver know what is hand luggage , our bus did have a smaller locker just for small cases. In his defense this time round I hadn't said what was the hand luggage . Also make sure you have personal ID on ALL handles , one of my big suitcases along with several other passenger's luggage got damaged , the top handle got broken after being passed over to the porters to go on the ship , didn't find it until after midnight ! The ship did repair it . Travelling down by coach is very convenient , we have 5 more return journeys between now and August 24, 4 with P&O , at least now I will be highlighting my hand luggage to the driver and watch it stowed before getting on the bus . Sorry for the long post but this situation had never happened before , a long cruise with lots of folks taking advantage of the 3 case rule was a perfect storm for something to go awry.

Ocean Grill at £15 per person with some dishes at an extra charge was very good , our best meal on the ship back in July this year. I hope you get fixed dining because freedom dining was the worst we ever experienced on any ship or cruiseline . The queues were horrendous . Unless you like to eat very late you'll have no chance eating early unless you share, my top tip is ask for a small table if you are asked to share . We liked to have post dinner drinks in the East bar , opposite Sindhu , nice and quiet with great service from Joyson and the female bar server called Kevin ! 😆. The Crows nest had live music from the orchestra some nights with a quiz like atmosphere , was fun . Great views but can be noisy... you access the Crows nest from the forward lifts .. The buffet is only small , Arcadia is only a small ship , we found it OK for breakfast and light snacks but very poor for dinner choices . She is an old lady but we would sail on her again despite the main dining room experience , we know now what to do in future if a fixed dining time isn't allocated .

No difference at all except on the Celebration night, which is usually the first dress up night the rest of them being classed as formal , Captain will do a speech and toast with the officers with free 'champagne' being dished out to guests as much as you would like .

We were the same , got a nice collection of Citizen watches in different colours courtesy of Select fare and shareholder's OBC . Like you say , use it or lose it 😎

Same goes for avoiding cocktails made with a little grapefruit juice. My hubby has to study drinks menus before ordering a cocktail... he likes a change now and then from Silk and Spice 😆

We were on Britannia in September and 2 of our tablemates had the non alcoholic drinks package. I was quite impressed they had non alcoholic wine and gin as well as zero beer.. Things have certainly come a long way . They were also drinking the mocktails but I didn't see a menu.

Silk and Spice is our go to wine , love it . We always buy the Captains club wine bottle package so works out cheaper too by doing that . We have a glass at dinner then take the rest with us to a bar and finish it there , we don't buy drinks packages with P&O..

Enjoying reading your live report Selbourne ... we are on Ventura to the Med on 5th December, our 3rd time on her , 2nd time this year . Keep the photos coming . Observations :- Brandy and Port mixed in equal measure is called a Stabiliser as told to us by a bar person on RCI. We have it when feeling a chill or under the weather . Creaking cabins , rarely been bothered by one but OMG the creaking balconies on Iona in Jan 22 were horrendous . They were so noisy it put us off sitting out on it , it was like a Mexican wave of creaking starting at one end of the ship working it's way to the aft. Like you I took video. We are back on Iona for New year so I am hoping she is bedded in now 😆. We visited the island of Las Palmas in January from Azura , first time visit there though been to the other islands for holidays and cruise visits many times . Las Palmas was a delight , I did a ship island tour that ended with rum and gin tasting , fantastic .. 😋 Enjoy the rest of your trip .

I know the washing machines had been delivered to the ship a few weeks ago, we were docked next to Serenade and I asked someone I knew 😉.

Joff, I believe , is doing the World cruise on Serenade which starts December . I am guessing he is on vacation now building his strength up 😆 🤣.

Sailed Enchanted last year twice , have also been on Regal and just did 24 nights on Sky. We have not been on Wonder but have been on all the other Oasis class ships. I love the Piazza on Princess, if the band is good I get up dancing as do a lot of others . There isn't an indoor/covered pool on Enchanted so if the weather is bad everyone is inside in the main body of the ship, can make finding seating difficult. We love the food on Princess , vary varied and no rice in sight , RCI seem to put rice with everything even when it isn't a curry or stir fry. The cabins on Enchanted are beautiful , we had a deluxe balcony BUT in all cabins upto balcony it is a shower curtain in the shower !!! Wr had a mini suite on Sky with a bath . Princess have the best beds at sea for comfort . If I were travelling with children I'd go for Wonder but if it is just a couple I'd go with Enchanted and splash the saved cash in the ports .

I can live with once a day service, got used to it now with Royal, P& O and I think it was once a day on Silhoutte in June . We were just on Sky Princess for 24 nights to Canada and New England round trip from Southampton . After a couple of days of twice a day service I told our room steward he could have the night off for the rest of the trip from doing our cabin . We made sure we had the privacy button lit up all night incase a supervisor did a spot check.

I am just reading about it now. P&O cruise ship Iona 'picks up three bodies' as British cargo ship sinks in North Sea off Germany https://mol.im/a/12665147 via https://dailym.ai/android

That could be taken either way , give me a clue 😆 😆 🤣. Will look out for you on 7th October 😉 😉.